Musings and Snippets from a recently retired JP. I served for 31 years, mostly in west London. I was Chairman of my Bench for some years, and a member of the National Bench Chairmen's Forum All cases are based on real ones, but anonymised and composited. All opinions are those of one or more individuals. JPs swear to enforce the law of the land, whether or not they approve of it. Nothing on here constitutes legal advice.

Thursday, April 13, 2017

Back to the Ranch

In the six months since my retirement from the bench I have not had cause to visit the courthouse. This week, however, I volunteered to show some local people around the building, and I was agreeably surprised to find that I still remembered the pass code for the car park. Our visitors were very interested and full of questions, which reminded me of my very early days as a JP when I found out just how little people knew about the court and its workings. That was a prime reason for my starting a blog a decade ago.

Very glad to hear from you. Would be interested to know your comments about how the school absence fee case in the IoW Mags ended up in the Supreme Court, and what it means now that the case has been referred back to it.

I think the ruling was right. Had it gone the other way, kids could be hopping in and out of school whenever the parents chose to take them on holiday. How would teachers be meant to cope with that and get through the work with all the pupils in their classes?

I imagine teachers would cope just as they always used to - with the occasional absence when head teachers had the discretion to allow a child up to 2 weeks out of school per year for family reasons including holidays - and which is still working perfectly well in Wales as I understand.

You are fortunate to have a 'local' courthouse. In Manchester they have virtually all been amalgamated into the city centre court - so much for local knowledge/local justice/by local people. MOJ have lost the civic plot in the scamble for savings no matter what.

I work within Greater Manchester criminal justice system - for Interserve CRC !! I, like many colleagues have been saddened by the changes within Transforming Rehabilitation which has resulted in " local " courts closing and the lack of contact we in CRC have with our once Probation colleagues within court and NPS. There also appears to be a lack of understanding as to what we in the community have at our disposals as to how we manage RAR days and whether courts really understand what and how these are completed.The MOJ really need to get their act together in realisng that TR is a disaster or the Home Office need to take back control of the reins and put the two separate services back together.

Said in the total security of an anonymised message. You go, keyboard warrior. Alternatively, get off your a*** and go do something useful that benefits your community and means that we don't have the misfortune of encountering you. A further alternative might be for you to just shut your mouth.

Whatever you say about Bystander he certainly is not useless. I know him anyway but I won't reveal his identity here. And if you had any courage you would not go by anonymous. You can only be wanting to create some sort of issue so this discussion has run its course. Good night.

Well Bystander, I personally have enjoyed your articles. Perhaps that is the reason why I as a lay person sit in occasionally on cases. The latest being the rape of a 16 year old girl by 4 animals and the sentencing of a pedophile. The amazing thing for the latter was a character witness stating that it was just a phase he was going through...The storage of children as young as 6 months being raped is not in my book a phase. It is a depraved animal. 18 months and on the sex offenders register for life. The 4 have yet to be sentenced.

What The Papers Said

40 Bloggers That Really Count (Times)There are 30,000 or so unpaid magistrates across England and Wales. For five years, one of them has anonymously detailed the cut and thrust of the job, providing a grimly funny insight into Britain’s sinful underbelly with the same feel and tone as a Hogarth or Dickens.